Thinking Like the Private Sector

Fire of Liberty
If you've been a reader of Fire of Liberty from the start, you know that I'm pretty much an advocate for the private sector in the fight against diseases, poverty and providing disaster supplies for the various people suffering during a disaster. While big government acts like molasses in organizing and delivering the right goods to the folks in need, companies like Wal-Mart, Fed-EX, UPS and various others gather water, clothes, food and deliver them in a more efficient and quicker amount of time because they don't have the red-tape and are centered on a goal.(The did a similar thing during Katrina.) Well Daniel B. Prieto, a senior fellow and director of the Reform Institute's Homeland Security Center, agrees with such approach in an op/ed in the San Francisco Chronicle but enhances this by noting that we need to bring together these private entities on a E-bay/Amazon/E-Harmony website but that deals with the delivery and distribution of disaster relief. While he suggests that such a web-site should be created and used by the Department of Homeland Security its a step in the direction of the private sector that takes a hatchet to red tape and the behemoth of big government that forms in D.C. If you have a site that shows a list of donors and what products they have to offer, the local or state governments could request various goods before the disaster or during and the DHS could dole them out must faster and without the confusion.(We still need the federal government for airlift capability and disbursement.)

Now while I could write on and on about this dynamic idea, I figured you'd like to read Daniel B. Prieto's thoughts on the creation of this efficient system. So take a look:

Future disasters envisioned by the Department of Homeland Security -- attacks with chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear agents, natural disasters, bombings -- will all require specialized-response resources, and the government will need all the help it can get from the private sector. Federal, state and local governments should identify critical supplies and capabilities -- vaccines, ventilators, generators, electric transformers, laboratory capacity, decontamination equipment, logistics, transport, warehousing -- that they will need ahead of time.

Building an eBay-like system to match regional disaster-response needs with companies that can pledge assistance ahead of time or help out in real time would save dollars and lives. Properly built and maintained, it would ensure that the vast majority of private pledges and donations are put to good use, instead of going unused. It would allow state, local and federal governments to inventory available critical assets rapidly and would be much faster than relying on government bureaucrats to create a resource database on their own. Such a system would effectively harness the enormous, but untapped, goodwill of the private sector to play a leading role in homeland security.

Better yet, this idea has already been proved. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Craigslist proved extremely effective at helping people find missing loved ones and housing matches -- in many ways, it was easier to use and more effective than similar efforts by the Red Cross and homeland security.

Washington will need to show innovation and leadership to launch an online marketplace to match government response and recovery needs with the vast skills, resources and goodwill of America's private sector. If done right, such a system can be built quickly and cost-effectively with proved technologies. The Department of Homeland Security should avoid the business-as-usual approach that tends to plague federal technology projects, in which billions of dollars are routinely spent on multiyear contracts to build hard-to-use systems from scratch. Additionally, the Department of Homeland Security should use available science and technology and emergency preparedness monies to support regional pilots to test and implement the system. Finally, and perhaps most important, Washington should provide federal liability protections for companies that register and donate critical disaster-response resources through the program.

While I still prefer the private sector over the government in most matters(Aside from providing law and order, national security, printing money and securing our borders) I have to say the Prieto's ideas are spot on in using the ideas of the private sector to get the government on track with regards to disaster relief. So check it out.